Plan your pool project—it sounds pretty simple. However, pool planning can be quite complicated, especially with so many decisions to be made. First of all, you need to think of the type of pool you want to own. There are at least three most popular options, including fibreglass, concrete and vinyl liner. Which is the best one for you? What are their pros and cons? From this point on, many other decisions will be made on the path towards finally enjoying your freshly installed pool.
Authorised Compass Pools Australia dealers will be happy to assist you in this process. For you, everything is new, while they are familiar with all the steps and options that are awaiting you. Talk to your local Compass pool builder to get all the information and assistance you require. With them and their experienced team, your new pool project will go smoothly. If you need some more information before you do that, explore this pool planning advice section and learn more about pool planning today.
Planning for your new pool area is extremely exciting, however, one important safety and design aspect to consider is pool fencing. Under Australian law, every swimming pool within every State and Territory must have an adequate barrier to restrict unsupervised…
A lot of people dream about having a swimming pool in the backyard, especially when the blazing summer heat and humidity roll in. But, there are space constraints that could make a traditional pool impossible, and a new swimming pool can be very expensive. Inflatable pools can solve all of these problems in one go.…
A pool can be a significant investment, and you want to pick a reputable local pool company. Sifting through pool companies in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle can be time-consuming, especially if you’re not sure what to consider. Many people choose to search for ‘swimming pools near me’ or ‘local pool builder near me’ to…
When you are planning your backyard swimming pool, it is important to consider which type of pool heating system to choose. There are a number of different options available, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here’s what you need to know about the different types of pool heating to help you choose the…
Your swimming pool is a beautiful design feature in your backyard, and you need to be able to enjoy it at any time of the day or night. This means you will need the right lighting for your pool. But which type of lighting to choose? And how do you create the perfect pool lighting…
A great question we’re often asked is, if I’m going to build a house, how do I go about planning the pool? If it is such that you’ve got a block that when the house is built, you’re going to lose your access, it’s really important to consider putting the pool in first. At Compass, we call that a sleeper pool. So you can certainly come to us and talk to use about installing a sleeper pool.
The other consideration is, if you’re going to have access, we can certainly put the pool in after the house is built. But the consideration might be, if it’s going to be anywhere near the house for example, you want to make sure you consult with your builder and ensure that the footings for that house are constructed in such a way that it lets you come up and excavate near the house. So there are those sorts of considerations that must be taken into account.
There are lots of exciting things about building a swimming pool. But one of the considerations you need to take into account is what am I dealing with on my block? In many cases, we are out at properties which have things such as easements. They are areas which you just can’t build over. It’s on your property but it really belongs to the council.
Other considerations are things like main sewer lines and so forth. There is a house sewer line that generally connects the main sewer lines unless you’re on a system such as a septic tank and that is a different consideration altogether. But where you’ve got a house sewer line that connects to a main sewer line, and you think that is in the path of the pool, that is not such a problem. Those things can be diverted. The main sewer lines for example, or any other thing that is fairly substantial, needs to have really careful consideration as to how we build around it.
I guess first off most clients have a bit of an understanding of what they want. From there I lead into what they’re going to use the pool for, how much room they think they might need, how many kids, do they entertain a lot. It’s basically finding out what they need. From there we can work out the best way to go about that.
I guess the most common questions that we’re always asked is should I lay pavers on sand or should I lay them on concrete? Traditionally, we used to lay all our pavers on sand around a pool. Most of the time they were a small format, so we could get away with laying them. These days, most people want large format pavers, large format concrete or natural stone. So nowadays you can’t lay pavers on sand around the pool purely because of the movements around the sand that washes out. You get a far better job on concrete.
A lot of people who come into my display centre to have an early-stage think about getting a pool always want to know what is involved in getting a pool. Among a hundred different things that are important when you’re planning a pool, how long it takes comes up pretty often.
You need to, I think, nut it down into four areas. They are planning the pool, getting the approval to build the pool and having the pool built, so that is effectively the installation of the pool. That is before all the nice cosmetic, easier things like the fencing and the paving all come to fruition.
Another fantastic testament to the Compass pool is that we have a lot of people who are not too far dissociated from the pool industry purchasing a Compass pool. We do a lot of pools for real estate agents. They know the power of introducing a prospective buyer to a house and saying, hey, this pool literally looks after itself.
I’ve had a couple of great experiences working with a few council people this year. They’re choosing their Compass pool for really specific reasons. I put a pool in just recently for the head inspector of one of the local councils here. He’s got an interesting job. He would go out to properties and he would issue them with what is called a final occupation certificate. That usually happens about twelve months after someone has had their pool installed.
I’ve helped hundreds of people plan their new pool. I really think that the three most important things to have a bit of a think about when you’re doing that is first the purpose, what you’re actually going to use your pool for. Is it for kids, family fun, is it just something pretty to look at, have barbeques around? Does it need to be suitable for anyone elderly who is getting into the pool?
The other thing is effort – how much effort you want to put into owning it. If you’re time poor and you do not see yourself out cleaning the pool or out there testing the water chemistry, there are certain things that you can do that can take a lot of that effort out of it.
We’re often asked how long is it going to take to build my swimming pool?
There are a couple of different elements that come together for that. Obviously we’ve worked through the time for contracting the swimming pool, designing it, doing all the bits necessary for now to be well on our way to having a pool in the backyard.
The next step for us is we need to manufacture it. Every Compass pool is built to order. We don’t build your swimming pool until we get an order for it. So it’s always your very own swimming pool, issued with its very own birth certificate. This is an important element of Compass Pools.
Having worked at Compass for a little under ten years now, one of the best pieces of advice I can give anybody considering or looking at putting in a swimming pool is take your time. A swimming pool is generally something that when people are considering putting one in, they’re usually pretty committed to their house. It usually means a long term investment in the property that they currently reside in.
This is not like going out and purchasing a motor car. If you went out and bought a motor car and decided, you know what, I just don’t like this car, there is something wrong with it, you can sell it. You can’t sell your pool without selling your house. So you want to be really careful when you think about all of the different options and all of the different inclusions that you can make part of that swimming pool.
Often people will walk into Compass or they’ll give us a call on the phone and they’ll say, how much for a swimming pool? It’s such a great question and is a difficult one to immediately answer. There are just so many different options and inclusions and site differences and things that are particular or may be particular about that pool. These will change the overall cost.
It’s not dissimilar from someone walking into a car yard where there are a whole range of cars on offer and saying, how much for a car? No one really does that because we’ve all been educated enough to know what a car is and that there are lots of different inclusions you can have.
If you want to be swimming in your new pool in summer then you actually need to be planning the construction of your pool well before things start to warm up. It comes as no surprise that most people begin to think about buying a pool when it is already hot. Unfortunately, by the time you sort out a plan, get approval from local authorities and then get scheduled into your pool builder’s timeline, the chances are that your …
